Mixing ColorsWhen you are buying groceries you very often look at the label of nutritional facts. In mixing colors, guess what, you are going to do the same thing. You are going to look at the ingredients in the tube before you buy, You should not go by a "common name" such as Sap Green, Bright Red or Sky Blue etc. etc. You are going to look at the pigment code formulation, wording on the tube P.G. meaning pigment green, P.R. meaning pigment red, P.B. meaning pigment blue You are going to start with seven tubes only, why so few, starting with a small number of colors and using and mixing these for a while to get completely familiar with what they can do and cannot do. You can always add more pigments (colors) to your palette as you get more experienced. Below are the seven pigments that I recommend as starters.
PB 29 French Ultr Marine Warm The above list of seven pigments are listed as warm or cool, remember warm colors tend to advance toward the viewer and cool colors tend to recede. Most of you are familiar with the color wheel it consists of primary colors RED, YELLOW, BLUE, and what is know as secondary colors, these are color produced by mixing any two primaries together, example Red plus Blue = Purple, the other two secondary's being Green and Orange. Six of the seven colors suggested consist of a warm and cool Red, warm and cool Blue. warm and cool Yellow. The colors chosen all have a color BIAS, or leaning towards another color. The warm Blue leans towards Red hence it's a warm Blue, the cool Red leans towards Blue hence it is a cool Red. Pigment code PB 15 which is Phthalo Blue has at least fifteen different names, each manufacturer has a different name for this pigment. If you like this Blue all you have to remember is PB 15 on the label not fifteen different names. Isn't that easier. Mixing Color is not difficult or complicated if you stop and think what color do I want to end up with.
Mix color #1 with #2, please note that you did not cross over the high fences you stayed in your area. You mixed PB 29 which is Blue learning towards Red with PR 206 which is Red leaning towards Blue. Now suppose you need a dullish purple,.... be a kid and climb over one of the high fences and mix color #1 with, climb over the fence with color #3 this is what happened, your mixed a Blue Red with a Red Yellow, you therefore mixed two tubes of pigment together but now three pigments Blue, Red and Yellow and you wind up with a dull purple. Now jump over two fences, mix color #6 with color #3 you are still mixing Blue & Reds together but it's going to look like mud, because you mixed Blue/Green Red/Yellow four pigments out of two tubes. Now you can do the same for a nice Green, mix color #5 & 6 together..... mix #6 & 4 and you are going to get a dullish Green, mix 1 & 4 your going to get mud Green. Mixing two pigments that are biased towards completely different colors will always result in a more "neutralized" (less intend or pure mixture). Some of these colors can be wonderful and you need to know how to mix them to play them off against brighter and pure colors. The above is the most important thing for you to understand. Remember as you add pigments you have to find out the "leanings" or bias of that particular color, or you could go to The Watercolor Color Club on the navigational bar on the left of this site and the whole wide world of color will be at your command. Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel tend to make a greyish/black color. White is opposite of Black, I know you got that right away.... Blue is opposite to.... that might make you pause a second or two Orange is Blue's opposite. Try this tip.....Blue, Red and Yellow are the three primaries. All my Gray's are made from Permanent Alizarin Crimson plus Winsor Green. Beware both of these colors are stainers, maybe a trip to the Watercolor Club might be in order if you want more help with this topic. When you buy a tube of paint try to obtain one pigment stated on the tube. Single pigment tubes is the way to go if possible. The least pigment in each tube the better. I would never in a million years buy a tube of Davy's Gray it has PG 17 (Green), PBk6 (Black) PW4 (White), PBk19 (Black) all inside the tube. Mix this with another tube I would not buy Burnt Umber PBk7 (Black) PR101 (Red) PY42 (yellow) if you happen to mix both of these you would have seven pigments mixed together WHAT A MESS. Mixing is also a matter of proportion, how much of each pigment that goes into the mix determines the outcome. Always start your mix with the lightest of pigments and add the others to it. Some pigments have greater tinting strength and a little touch may change the other color quickly. In Mixing Colors I try to let them mingle and mix together on the paper rather than mixing colors in the palette.
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